Who is the greatest teacher in Chinese history? You can’t think of anyone else when you hear people read Confucius’ 2,500–year–old words: “All study but no thinking makes people puzzled. All think but no study makes people lazy. ”
September 28^th was Confucius’ birthday. He was born in the Kingdom of Lu(鲁国), in today’s Shandong Province. Chinese look upon Confucius as the greatest thinker and also the greatest teacher. He had about 3,000 students. For more than 2,500 years, Confucius’ ideas have been around in people’s everyday lives. Now they have gone far into Western countries and South Asia. People can still hear them today.
Why are his ideas so popular? They help not only in everyday life but also in society(社会). Confucius’ most important ideas are kindness and good manners. Confucius said young people should take care of the old. People should give up thinking of themselves and work for others. As a great teacher, Confucius said that all should go to school if they wanted to learn.
Some of Confucius’ popular words are “A kind person should care others” and “Be strict with yourself, but be kind to others.” People use his ideas to help themselves and society. Now, more than 100 internet web sites are teaching people about Confucius and his ideas.
“Kindness and honesty are the best values(价值) of the world today, ” said 79–year–old Kong Fanjin who is studying Confucius.
【小题1】Confucius was     .

With a hat by his feet, a blind boy sat on the steps of a building. He held up a sign which said, “I’m blind, please help.”

Only a few people put   36  in the hat. A man was walking by. He   37  some coins into the hat. He then turned the sign   38 , wrote some words, put the sign back and left.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people   39  to give money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man came to see   40  things were. The boy recognized his footsteps （认出他的脚步声）and asked, “Were you the one who   41  my sign this morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a   42  way.” What he had written was, “Today is a beautiful day,   43 I cannot see it.”

Both the   44  told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply   45  people to help by throwing some money into the   46 . The second one, however, told people that they were able to enjoy the   47  of the day, but the boy couldn’t   48  he was blind.

There are at least two lessons we can learn   49  this story. First, be thankful for what you have. Someone else has less. Help them if you can.   50  , be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way!

As we know, there are differences between western culture and Chinese culture. We can see differences when we pay attention to the way words are used. Let’s look at the words about animals and plants. Most expressions in Chinese about the dog, for example, “a homeless dog”, “a mad dog”, “a running dog” and “a dog catching a mouse” have negative(消极的) meanings. But in western countries, dogs are thought to be honest and good friends of humans. In English, people use the dog to describe positive(积极的) actions. For example, “you are a lucky dog” means you are a lucky person. And “every dog has its day” means each person has good luck sometimes. To describe a person’s serious illness, they say “sick as a dog”. The word “dog-tired” means very tired. However, Chinese love cats very much. But in western culture, “cat” is often used to describe a woman who is cruel(残酷的)。
The rose is regarded as a symbol (象征) of love in both China and some western countries. People think the rose means love, peace, courage and friendship. And the rose is the national flower of England, America and many other countries.
The words about plants and animals are used in positive or negative ways in different cultures. We can learn about many differences in cultures by comparing how some words are used.
【小题1】“Every dog has its day.” Means “__________”